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UK needs more part-time senior jobs to tackle 'motherhood penalty'

By Caoimhe Toman

Date: Friday 21 Sep 2018

UK needs more part-time senior jobs to tackle 'motherhood penalty'

(Sharecast News) - The Association of British Insurers have suggested introducing more part-time senior jobs in a move to tackle the "motherhood penalty" and reduce gender seniority gap.
The ABI published its 'Tackling the gender seniority gap' report after data was released that said there are 60% fewer women at board level than at entry level in financial services companies.

Currently women with children are more likely to choose to work part-time or with reduced hours and find it harder to get promoted and rise to more important positions. Motherhood is the dominant reason for the gender seniority gap, the study found.

The report calls for financial firms to make it easier for mothers who work part-time by making more senior jobs part-time and making job-shares easier. They also believe financial firms should help mothers who return to work after having children and give them the chance to progress and be promoted.

The report also says that sexism is best tackled by organisational redesign and not training. It argues that the impact of training to 'remove' bias is unconvincing and that there is a lack of evidence that anti-bias training results in a systematic increase in promotion, or a reduction in the gender gap.

Amanda Blanc, chairwoman of the ABI hit out at the industry's progress on gender diversity and said: " It is simply not good enough that in 2018 there are 60% fewer women at board level than at entry level."

"Mothers still face a huge challenge to make progress in their career when they return to work," she added.

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